CBR TV: Gillen on Comics, Creator-Owned and "Young Avengers" Fans

Whether it's the team dynamic of "Young Avengers," the solo adventures in "Iron Man" or the historical context of "Three," Kieron Gillen has a lot of projects in the marketplace. With a plethora of projects on his plate, Gillen stopped by the CBR Tiki Room at New York Comic Con 2013 to catch up on his comics slate, and discussed his love of New York, how he approaches writing comics, the positive reaction to "Three," the incredible fan response to "Young Avengers" and more.

On his love of New York: I'm a fanboy of New York. I walk out of the hotel onto the streets and I sort of giggle. Anyone who's loved movies or film or -- especially comics -- New York is the archetype of the modern city. It's a phenomenal thing. I even like the rudeness and the aggression. It's like, "I'm really in New York! Some guy just punched me or whatever to try and get across the road! I'm living it now!"

On whether something like "Phonogram" is easier to write due to its personal nature: Nothing is easy about "Phonogram." It matters in a way that few things matter. It's a book that I think only I could really write in the way that it is. A lot of writers could do their own take on "Three," but "Phonogram" is pretty much life philosophy in the form, so I have to have it right. ... "Phonogram" awkward and nothing is easy about it. The again, nothing's easy about any job -- "Three" is researching areas that don't even exist. And the challenges of doing your story in the Marvel Universe with all the other pressures around it, there are no easy jobs.

On the incredibly positive reaction to "Three": It's touching and it's sold well -- Part of it is it's a good book -- Ryan's killed it, Jordie -- the whole team is fantastic. Against the background of Image, and Image is allowing really personal visions to reach numbers that are impressive. I don't quite like to [dwell] on numbers because it's quite crass. I'm much more into the art side of things. But to see the possibility of art to be sustainable -- me and Jamie, we starved to do "Phonogram." There are "Phonogram" horror stories I could tell.

On the fan reaction to "Young Avengers": The "Young Avengers" fans are incredibly passionate, very creative -- the fan art they create, lots of fan work -- but the cosplayers especially are outstanding. When we did Leah's reveal as a young adult, within hours people had actually done Leah cosplay and posted it on the tumblr because they got the green dress, they perfected the eyeliner and it was astounding. It was like literally the character came to life. And seeing something like that, you go through the immediate stage of "Am I having a nervous breakdown by seeing my characters walking around?" and then it's like -- as I walked away from them, we took the photos, and whatever -- I actually said, "I love all you guys." And I'm not a guy who says stuff like that!